Gnosce Te Ipse

Preparing for a trip to the city , the affectionate title all northern californians seem to give to San Francisco, even those, like myself, who live three hours away, I noticed this article and also this . This is disturbing news. I don't think I could be fired if someone from work found my blog; I have tenure. Free speech is deeply respected at the college level. Though if I had racist or sexist comments up here...well, that might wound my career, even, maybe, get me fired, though probably not. I'm not worried about my job. I think about the little I've said about my parish up here, the parish where the priest just asked me to be senior warden, someone who works with him directly, a request which shocked me and my family. I haven't all been positive in the things I've said, and I've held back my critical observations. Do I want my priest, who is an avid onliner, a man I have pushed for broadband access for, to see my comments here? Mostly, this would...

I have, oh, like forty minutes until I need to start cooking dinner; Mike is taking a nap, S is still at work. But browsing the online news and seeing this article made me want to throw something up here. Evolution and design are two things I've been thinking about lately. I wish I had more time to do this enormous topic justice now, but maybe another time. Besides, I'm truly a newbie. In the past I've simply said I don't care. I knew the earth was not 10,000 years old; the geologic record seems plain on this. Certainly the universe is older; we receive light from very distant objects. I've read enough myth to recognize one in the genesis accounts. These are ancient Sumerian creation stories. In fact, Elohim, translated God, is plural, and I have a hard time believing this is some reveleation of the trinity at the beginning of the starkly monotheistic Torah; I have yet to read a satisfactory answer to that issue, though I'm sure some have tried. Bu...

Before I begin...if you want to see what ocd looks like, watch Monk on USA. If you want to see what that motherfucker feels like, see The Aviator , Scorcese's new film. I went yesterday and I'm still recovering. Artistically, it's successful, but I had a very hard time staying in the theater. Somehow I managed. I've been doing better lately and that movie brought up all kinds of feelings and anxiety, but a hard set under the steel at the gym helped. Thanks, again, to the Bomber . *** Blessedly, I had beautiful holidays. Christmas eve, truly, I felt more contentment than I ever have. Ever. So much serenity. I'm not really a Thomas Kinkade fan. His paintings looks like electrified John Constable cottages. I almost said cartoon (please, I mean no offence to his legions of fans). He was born near where I live, and he is of course popular all over the world. But the myth that sells his paintings of houses glowing so brightly they appear to be ...

it's snowing at the moment, but this is supposed to be the final day. And thankfully, we've had as much, or more, sleet/gropple/rain, what weather people call 'wintry mix,' as we've had powder. Otherwise I would have been snowed in for days. Still, my yard is buried. I'm guessing four feet? Some of the drifts are certainly that high. A bulldozer finally came by and shoved the pile of snow flanking my driveway up in to a huge mound. We haven't lost power except for that one night when the transformer was popping, and the plows have come by every day. I'm impressed. Lots of news: I bought a truck. I traded in my subaru legacy for a toyota tacoma with 4wd and the trd off road package. 31 inch tires, baby. Locking rear diff. V6. Someone make that tim allen huh huh ape noise. It's older than my legacy, and has a few more miles, and I had to pay more! But not much more, and it looks brand new. I wanted the height and the horsepower in...

I hope I didn't scare anyone with my last post; fact is, I was scared. It was like those scenes in movies when the radar guy on the boat sees a huge mass coming on the radar, 'that can't be right!' Like that. The storm warnings up here were incredible. I'd cut and paste but that feels silly. But this morning NOAA said on their site that if we left the safety of our houses we'd be risking our lives. That's what it said. Now what has happened is this: it's rained like snot all day. Sideways, windy, heavy rain, and the snow has been just above us! It even got to 40 today, though only briefly. Mostly mid to upper thirties, too warm to snow. I'm very grateful for this. Mikey's school shut down today but S was at work and she should be on her way home any minute, without snow. Wind and rain, but no blizzard snow. I'm sure a little above us, say 5000 feet and up, it's the gods of winter. And Mikey didn't fly out tonight e...

Actually, I have had power the last few days, but I've been doing two things on my winter break, shovelling snow and reading the historical novel Master and Commander . That particular piece of fiction fits with the grunt work of lifting and flinging the heavy snow. I've been working about two hours a day to clear our driveway, widen the narrow opening in our berm...ah but I've used a technical term for those of you who haven't lived in snow, let me talk about bermage (nothing worse than snow snobbery). Without snow plows, modern transportation would not be possible in snow country. Meaning cars, even four wheel drives, even those with extra ground clearance and snow tires, can only drive in so much snow. Once it gets too deep, you need a snowmobile, skis, snow shoes, a horse and sleigh maybe. And once that beautiful powder begins to settle, pack down from time and pressure, it freezes and becomes very slippery. Ice. It has to be removed for commerce to contin...

Thanks to all for the positive comments. I should write about the weather more. The fact is, the snow has really hit since my last post. There is close to three feet of powder around my house. The plows haven't been by all day, and the road is so deep S called in to work. The woman who was filling in for her (after staying up to celebrate the Eve) had her husband try to come up here and get her. He has a big diesel pickup with chains. He wouldn't even come all the way up the main highway. Power lines down and cars stuck in the snow all over 50. And trees across the road. Guess it's a good thing we stayed home. But last night, madly, we went out. We left about 9 to head down the hill a few miles to celebrate new year's with a couple we know. I've never driven in snow that dense. I don't know what the technical definition of a blizzard is, but on the radio they often warn of 'blizzard-like conditions.' Usually, that's above us, over ...